News of the day from across the nation, Dec. 28

Chronicle News Services

Published 7:49 pm, Saturday, December 27, 2014

1 Negative pay: Instead of receiving their paychecks via direct deposit on the day after Christmas, some public school employees in Plymouth, Mass., awoke Friday to find that the amount they were to be paid had instead been withdrawn from their bank accounts. About 1,300 workers were affected. Boston.com reports Superintendent Gary E. Maestas sent an e-mail to employees saying the issue was caused by human error. The school department is working with the town and banks to fix the problem, but Maestas says some banks won’t make corrections until Monday.

2Missouri protests: A protester who advocated for peaceful demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., was charged Saturday with setting fire to a convenience store in nearby Berkeley. A St. Louis County jail official said Joshua Williams, 19, of St. Louis was being held on $30,000 bond. He is charged with arson, second-degree burglary and stealing less than $500. Williams, who was frequently quoted and photographed protesting Michael Brown’s death, is accused of using lighter fluid to set fires inside and outside a QuikTrip in Berkeley, near where a white police officer shot and killed a black teen late Tuesday. Court records said Williams confessed and that his actions were captured by surveillance video and by news media.

3Marijuana use: Colorado emerged as the state with the second-highest percentage of regular marijuana users as it began legalizing the drug, according to a new national study. The Denver Post reports the study by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found about 1 out of 8 Colorado residents older than 12 had used marijuana in the past month. Only Rhode Island topped Colorado in the percentage of residents who reported using pot as often, according to the study. The study found that, for the 2011-12 period, 10.4 percent of Colorado residents 12 and older said they had used pot in the month before being surveyed. That number jumped to 12.7 percent in the 2012-13 data.

4Perfect attendance: Guitarist Bruce Rickerd has performed in every single performance of “Mystere” at Treasure Island since the original Cirque du Soleil show based on the Las Vegas Strip arrived 21 years ago. That perfect attendance is expected to reach 10,000 performances as of Saturday. Cirque du Soleil officials say Rickerd’s name will be added to the Guinness Book of World Records that day when the record-keeping agency certifies that the musician has broken the record for most theatrical performances by a male musician.

5LAPD policy: A state court determined Friday that a Los Angeles Police Department policy that makes it easier for unlicensed drivers to keep their cars instead of having them impounded after police stops is lawful and can remain in place. The policy has been supported by the city attorney and immigrant-rights groups, who said the old impound policy was unfair to immigrants who cannot obtain a driver’s license.

Chronicle News Services

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